Penny

Star Crossed: The Duke's Rebellion

Over the years Rene had gotten a surprising amount of practice at controlling his emotions. Drill sergeants and officers had tried to provoke him, comrades had mocked him out of hate for his birth and those members of his family which still spoke to him had cursed him. None of it really affected him. Despite that he felt his face heat slightly with embarrassment. Not so much for himself, though by the Throne the AI’s accurate reading of his reaction to Solae WAS embarrassing, but because Solae herself was so clearly humiliated. He paused and cast his eyes skyward as though seeking an observer on high.

“Yeah ok, starting to think naked marble statue wasn’t the first red flag with this guy,” he quipped. Solae laughed inspite of herself and he felt some of his own tension fade as he crossed the room to take a sat beside her.

“I’m ok,” he told her, returning to her original question. There was a faint nutty odor rising from whatever it was Solae had been preparing though he couldn’t imagine what it could be. There was a distinct growl from his stomach. Some vestige of courtly etiquette made it h ard for him to start eating before a lady, though the marine indoctrination screamed at him to eat while he had the chance. Instead he pulled an antiseptic spray from the opened medical kit.

“Well for rather skewed values of ok. It just looks bad because I’ve been shot, and I got blown off an antennae, and a wall fell on me…” the sentence trailed off as he triggered the spray and the cold bitter vapor burned across the line the bullet had drawn. He sucked in a breath but forced himself to make a second pass. Once that was done he picked up a second aresol sprayer loaded with synthetic skin intened for burns and blisters. The pinkis synthetic was incongrously bright against his tanned and bruised chest. Though he was in pain he didn’t dare take any analgesics, he couldn’t afford to dull his reflexes.

“There, good as new,” he lied and slipped the shirt on though he didn’t try to button it. He looked at her, trying to inventory her scrapes and scratches rather than focusing on her beauty.

"What about you?"

The Elder Scrolls: Serpent's Fall

I have an idea for both a hard bitten legion veteran and a Breton Illusionist!

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

Sayeeda took the weapon she had selected from Neil. It was a police issue rifle with a combination of firing modes and a plastic case of dull non-reflective plastic. She found a bandolier and put several magazines into its pouches before slinging it over her shoulder. Aiden chuckled and Sayeeda cocked a questioning eyebrow.

“It really completes the ensemble,” he explained gesturing to her torn evening dress and sparkling finery.

“I doubt the dress makers would approve of such accents,” he went on drawing an old fasioned pistol from a box and checking the weight. The thing looked to be made of gold, but judging from how easily Aiden lifted it, it was a decorative plating.

“I wouldn’t be so sure, I think that the staff could give most combat crews a run for their money. Particularly if you suggest that sapphires and silver can work as a color combination.” Aiden snickered and racked the slide on his pistol.

Neil passed Taya a needle stunner, the weapon as small and theoretically non lethal although Junebug was just as glad that the girl seemed to be remembering her lessons about muzzle control.

“Alright, lets do it.”

“Are you sure this is safe?” Aiden yelled over the howling intakes of the stolen air car. Sayeed laughed as the wind tore at her hair.

“If you want safe you are in the wrong car tonight!” she yelled back. The aircar was a high powered sports model they had snatched of the street. A few minutes with a cutting bar had sliced the top off in an effort to decrease the weight. At Neils insistence they had stripped the guidance system, emergency fail safes and every other component that wasn’t essential to the drive train or the control systems. Even the doors had been cut away to bring the power to weight ratio as high as could be achieved. Taya finished a series of keystrokes on her data pad. She looked terrified and was clearly wishing she had a helmet. Junebug as making do with a pair of shooters glasses from Ranalds apartment. A light on the pad went from red to green and Taya gave her a thumbs up.

“The code was good, the system won’t recognise us as friend or foe, it should just ignore us!” The wind was intense without a windshield of any kind but it couldn’t be helped, the heavy bullet proof glass had been to heavy to save. Approaching the palace, even with the transponders foxed, would have been impossible. Emergency back ups meant to avoid air car crashes would have been tripped. In order to enter the palace they had to come in nearly vertically and without power until the last possible second. Neil said it was possible and that was good enough for Junebug.

“Alright Neil, fire her up,” she commanded.

“Hold onto your a…” The car slammed upwards through Junebug’s legs as Neil rammed the throttle to the gates. The sickening sense of acceleration crushed them to their chairs as the car surged skyward at several hundred kilometers an hour. The pressure lasted only five or ten seconds before Neil chopped the throttle to nothing and killed the engines. The car as still hurtling upwards on nothing but momentum. The pilot flexed his hands over the controls as the wind whipped past them. The approach as an extremely high parabola. The huge burst of acceleration would carry them high into the heavens and then gravity would bring them down. If Neils calculation and piloting were correct that should be ontop of the north tower.

The lights of Dar’mond glitterex below them like diamonds as their speed slowed. For a queasy moment there was equilibrium as the car reached the top of its arc. Sayeeda had never liked roller coasters, but then she had never liked rather a lot of things and she didn't let them get in the way of doing her job. The car plummeted downwards in a ballistic course as terrible and predictable as anything Newton could have imagined. She gripped her seat belt and counted silently, knowing that life or death depended on Neil sticking this landing.
@POOHEAD189

Dogs of War: Old World Mercenaries

The atmosphere of the camp was claustrophobic. Camilla found moving around without unwanted male attention to be difficult to say the least. Under normal circumstances a camp like this would attract its share of professional prostitutes but mid winter as not the normal season for such a gathering. There were a few other women in the camp, wives or girlfriends many of whom were of an entrepreneurial bent whatever their attachments, but it wasn’t exactly meeting market demand.

She tried to keep to the tent she and Cydric had bartered for with some of their few remaining coins as best she could but boredom and the call of nature forced her to emerge occasionally. Food consisted of simple stew made with whatever was to hand but even poor rations were growing prohibitively expensive in the frozen season. Fortunately a dwarf by the name of Glecki Torbadson, a scruffy looking youth with scarcely a beard to speak of, had decided in typical dwarven fashion that ice and snow were no impediment to beer. Once every few days he drove a cart drawn by tired plow horses into the camp and sold a weak local ale by the barrel. The stuff was terrible but it made up or both the boredom and lack of nutrition as well as anything could.

“Goin’ my way sweetheart?” a scabberous looking imperial with yellowed teeth an an eyepatch asked as she headed back towards the camp. She had taken a turn to check the snares they had set in the woods and was returning with a brace of scrawny hares. Camilla sighed and pulled back her cloak to reveal one of her dueling pistols.

“Aww don’t be like that,” the man went on in a wheedling tone. He placed two fingers in his mouth and whistled. A half dozen mercenaries melted out of the trees, all grinning with the same loathsome intent as the one eyed man.

“You can mayb shoot one of us, but the rest of us are going to have a nice evening,” the fellow went on conversationally.

“After that I bet we can clean the silver out of the camp renting you out.” Camilla measured the distance to the camp in her mind, a hint of fear began to enter her mind. If they really didn’t mind losing one or two of their number…

“You like bet da?!” boomed a voice that sounded like glaciers grinding.

“I bet da lytal dove feed you all your balls no problem!” Camilla turned to see a trio of Kislivites tramping out of the woods. Two of them had a stag strung to a pole though she doubted that would have stopped them from drawing their curved swords in a heartbeat. The speaker wasn’t encumbered, he had an axe and a sword at his belt and a vast recurve bow slung over his shoulder. He was a mountain of a man, two hundred and fifty pounds at least of pure muscle. His features were craggy but drawn back into a vicious grin more at home on a wolf than a man.

“We have no quarrel with you friend,” the Imperial began suddenly less sure of himself than he had been a moment before.

“Da but meybe we have karrel with you, maybe if lytal dove don’t hack of balls we finish job!” The thick kislevite accent made the words hard to understand, his tone was hopeful rather than threatening but the mercenaries were already backing away from the wicked gleam in the man’s ice blue eyes.

Camilla drew her pistol from her waist band and leveled it at the leader.

“Now now there is no cause for…” the man looked back over his shoulder to check on the uncertain support of his comrades. The men were already edging back, snow crunching under their boots. The Imperials resolve melted like butter in a blast furnace.

“This is all…” Camilla shot the fellow in the upper thigh. He screamed in agony and dropped to the snow clawing at his bloody trousers. The Kislivites booming laughter drowned out the screams and sent to other mercenaries running for the treeline.

“Dats right and if Norscan pig don’t kil you maybe Ivan Petrovich some dark night da!” All three Kislivites howled with laughter as the ringleader staggered away in a stumbling half crawl. Ivan Petrovich wiped the tears of mirth from his eyes as Camilla threw her arms around their old friend.

“Now lytal dove, let find Cytric and we eat dis fa-king deer da!”
@POOHEAD189

Star Crossed: The Duke's Rebellion

It was amazing what a shower could do. It had been obvious even under the dirt and grime that Solae was a beautiful woman but clean she nearly sparkled. Perhaps it was the effect of seeing her filthy first, the way a gemstone might be more austonding if one had seen the rough hewn rock before it was cut and polished. Her hair, still wet from the shower as like spun electrum and the loose shirt and exercise pants hung in a loose profusion which suggested her figure more powerful than a more revealing outfit could have managed.

“I imagine your improvisation makes them look far better than they ever did on their owner,” he said with a wan smile. The style on Capella at the time of his disgrace had run to ridiculously closely tailored suits with natural striations and short capes. Judging by what Solae had found he didn’t need to worry too much about finding something that would fit.

“You don’t need to wait if you don’t want too but I’ll just be a minute.”

Following Solae’s directions he found the shower without difficulty. The shower unit was modern and stylish and certainly cost more than a marine made in a year. The floor and walls were laid out with hand crafted tiles that looked like naturally weathered stone of a warm brown yew. Rene stripped off his boots and socks and placed them carefully in a corner. Painfully he removed his shirt, the act made difficult by the bruises and contusions that coated his upper body then stripped off his pants and undergarments and carried them into the shower with him.

“May I assist you sir?” asked the sultry voice of the house AI. Rene nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of an unexpected female voice when he was completely naked.

“Throne curse you!” he breathed leaning both hands against the tiled wall of the shower and letting his forehead rest on the cool stone surface.

“No I can manage,” he told the AI curtly and touched a control to activate a sonic scrub. An inaudible bath of sonic energy washed over him. Dirt and dried blood fell away from his skin in a dusty shower, his teeth ached slightly and the bullet graze across his chest began to ooze blood. He deactivated the sonic and turned the water on. Hot water seemed like decadence as it poured down over his battered form, washing the dirt and blood into the drain like a red stained river. The heat felt good on muscles bunched in tension for long hours and he had a momentary desire to stay under the running water forever. Remembering that Solae was waiting he quickly scrubbed himself and turned the water off.

“Stars..” he marveled as he walked out of the shower, tossng his soaked pants over the partition to dry. The full length mirror was specially finished so that it didn’t fog in spite of the steam. His entire muscular torso was covered in bruises. Foremost were the three red black lines where the harness had caught him when he fell from the disintegrating communications antennae. Even through his shirt the canvas safety straps had abbraided his skin though the fact hadn’t been evident to him when he had been shot full of adrenaline. Further bruises, from falling sand bags compounded the effect, making him look like a child had painted him with black and purple paint. His right hand had been cut by razor wire through the wound had already sealed itself and been puckered red by the hot water. The bullet graze was mercifully shallow, only a few millimeters deep than the stars, and it wept a slow trickle of blood. Rene took one of the pristine white hand towels and pressed it to his side. The Gid had been lucky, there was no doubt about that, but he had been good enough to spin and fire when taken completely by surprise. Rene hoped that was an exception rather than a measure of the opposition.

Rene did somewhat better than Solae had when it came to clothing. Armon’s wardrobe furnished him with a set of what it claimed were hunting pants, the only thing available with pockets, but from the crisp dark grey finish Rene doubted they had ever been taken on a hunt. He put the pants on and laboriously hooked his equipment belt to the unfamiliar garment before pulling his combat boots back on over the fine socks of natural wool. The effect of the belt and the boots with the expensive pants was vaguely ridiculous but this was no time to make a fashion statement. Mia also provided him with a white button down shirt, this he didn’t put on just yet, there was no point until he had seen to his wound, but rather tossed it over his shoulder. Transiently he wondered if he would be shot if he were captured out of uniform. Well uniforms hadn’t saved Bowie and the others. A growl in his stomach reminded him that Solae was still waiting to eat and he headed back down the stairs.

“Still a bit of a mess I’m afraid,” he joked as he returned to the kitchen, deliberately making his tone light. Even clean he must look a fright.

“Let’s eat and then we can see what we can accomplish with the first aid kit.

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

Junebug found a small alleyway and led the little group of fugitives into its shelter. There as no sign that anyone was on to them yet but on a world as infested with cam drones as this one it was only a matter of time.

“...aptain?” a dim voice chimed in her ear.

“Lonney? Is that you?”

“Aye… c… chrrcch… bollocking… zwweep… amm… bitches,” came the reply. Taya began to fiddle with her own implant though she didn’t appear to be having too much luck. Sayeeda cursed. Someone was still jamming the ship even though they had escaped the smaller scale jammer that had been used at the opera.

“Taya anyway you can boost the signal to Lonney?” she asked glancing out of the mouth of the alley. The holo boards continued to blare with talking heads excitedly debating the shocking announcement of a few minutes before. Taya considered it.

“If you can get me to a credit terminal and you don't mind text only,’ she replied.

“I wouldn’t mind smoke signals only at the moment,” Junebug said with a grim smile. Aiden chuckled despite still looking drawn and pained. They walked down the street to a nearby credit terminal. Junebug stood close to Taya, shieding what she was doing from view with her own body. The girl made some arcane adjustments to some settings Sayeeda hadn’t known existed. A moment later a message appared on the screen.

Multiple hostiles in the hangar. No effort to get aboard after what I did to the first group. Ha ha.

It as Neil’s turn to chuckle. Junebug had Taya send a reply instructing Lonney to keep the ship bottled up no matter what to which she received the worryingly cheery reply of ‘Aye Aye Captn’ with a smiley face emoji winking.

“Well I guess we haven’t much choice but to Alexander’s chambers, we cant get to the ship,” Junebug confided to Neil and Aiden.

“I need a weapon though, any way we can pick some up?” she askd Aiden. It as his city afterall though she doubted the prince himself ran much to gun dealing.

“I know just the place.”

“By the Goddess…” Sayeeda breathed when, fifteen minutes later, Aiden led them into a nondescript but neatly kept apartment complex and opened a door to one of the penthouses. Inside was a bed, a refresher and a refrigerator. Every other square inch of space was covered in weapons ranging from the state of the art to the ridiculously antiquated. A powder loading musket hung next to a laser carbine of alien manufacture, below them stretched a row of handguns of bogglingly diverse origin.

“What is this place?” she asked in shocked awe as she ran her fingers along the packing case of what was almost certainly a pintle mounted triple barreled plasma gun. Aiden chuckled sadly.

“It is… or was maybe… Ranald’s apartment. I’ve been on him for years to donate these to a museum, some of them are quite valuable.”

“I’ll bet…” Sayeeda breathed as see picked up an electrochemical rifle fed by a box magazin of caseless ammunition and weighed the balance in her hand. The effect with her evening ware was enough to make Taya giggle.
@POOHEAD189

Dogs of War: Old World Mercenaries

amilla felt her hackles begin to rise as the grey seer began to chant in his wirdly warbling squeak. The burning pines sank to almost nothing giving Camilla a momentary view of the horde of panicky skaven beyond and then sprang up with redoubled vigour. The fire began to flow into the visage of a monstrous rat like face, the flames themselves taking on an oddly green tinge.

Cydrics sword had drank sorcery in the past but this was no time to take chances. With a cry Camilla flung herself at Cydric. It almost backfired as the big Ostlander was nearly twice her meager mass but he was tired and off balance. With a staggering step they fell through the opening the rat ogre had smashed in the ancient masonry. For a heart stopping moment there was the sensation of free fall and then they plunged into a torrent of icy water.

The water swept them from the meagre light of the ensorcelled fire in seconds and they were plunged into darkness so complete that it woke purple phantoms in Camilla’s eyes. She thrust herself above the water and gasped for air before the current sucked her back under again. Cydric was still close by and she caught him by what must have been a strap attached to his rent armor. A rocky mass slammed across her legs and she tried to yelp in pain, icy water filled her mouth for a terrifying instant before Cydric pulled her above the water level. She tried to curl herself into a ball as best she could weathering the occasional rocky blow in the pitch dark.

The cold itself sapped her energy, and she found herself fading into grey black haze periodically he flesh brushed against something that seemed to radiate warmth into her shivering body. The torrent grew slower, though not enough to allow movement or quiet enough to allow speech even if Camilla could have made her blue lips form words. With a shocking suddenness they burst into sunlight and the world fell away beneath them. Camilla tried to scream but no sound came from her lips as they plunged twenty feet and smashed into another body of water.

They had fallen from a waterfall Camilla realised as her eyes adjusted to the wan winter sunlight. Above her tumbled a waterfall which poured from a rent in the limestone, carrying an underground river towards the sea. A pool ringed on both sides by sandy if snow covered sand rippled beneath the thunder of the waterfall. Cydric, less hampered by the cold than she, pushed himself to his feet and half dragged half carried her to the shore, wading through the waist deep pool like a ferryman.

"Idiota," she murmured before the world narrowed into a black tunnel and then winked out.

@POOHEAD189

Star Crossed: The Duke's Rebellion

Despite Rene’s words it was impossible for one man to keep an effective watch on so large a house. The galaxy rarely provided a perfect solution to any problem but he did the best he could. Fortunately the house was equipped with a number of holocams and accompanying pickups. With a little ingenuity, and a good deal of subvocalized cursing, Rene was able to convert several of the holographic art pieces which hung on the dining room wall into improvised security cameras. The external cameras were clearly designed with a view to bringing in views of the garden rather than detecting intruders but the result was better than he could have achieved by walking a patrol.

With his improvised security station completed and Solae in the shower he turned his attention back the food. The contents of the cabinets seemed like a cornucopia after so long on a diet that consisted almost entirely of bland Imperial issue ration packages. He retrieved some of the dinner ware and set two places at the table, laying down an off planet ham and slicing off thin precise slices with a silver embossed carving knife. There were Terran pomegranates in the produce draw and cracked one open and lay one half on each of the plates he was preparing before removing two packages of some unfamiliar vegetable mix from the dry storage and pulling the tabs. The small silver boxes hissed and steamed as their integral catalytic cookers steamed the vegetables inside before the internal pressures lifted the lid to reveal the perfectly prepared side dish.

While Rene worked a section of the marble countertop slid downwards into a recess that was invisible to the naked eye. The effect was flawless and doubtless very expensive. The marble rose back into sight bearing a large white box marked with the simple red cross which universally denoted medicine. The catches on the side opened easily and he opened the leaves out to spread the contents over the counter. Phials of medicine, bandages, sprays, syringes and a variety of other medical devices were laid out in neat precision. There was even a bioscanner and an attached medical computer tucked into the top of the unit. Rene wondered if the homes owner had chosen the unit or it was simply placed there by the staff as an expected security measure.

Tending his wounds would need to wait till after his own shower. There wasn’t much point in trying to clean a wound when his whole body was covered with filth afterall. Instead he laid out the items he had taken from the soldiers hunting Solae and spread them out beside the first aid kit. One rifle - sixty rounds, one pistol - eighteen rounds, three ration bars one half eaten, a fold out map of Armistice and its surrounding suburbs, a military first aid pack that was older than Rene and two canteens of water. It wasn’t much against a whole planet. Things would look better after they had rested. Solae's suggestion that they sleep here was a good one, who knew how long it might be before they had another chance. Assuming of course.

He heard Solae’s soft footstep and turned to the stairs she had ascended for her shower.

“All set ma… Solae?” he asked making an off handed gesture to the food he had prepared.

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

The four companions were borne out of the theatre ahead of a tide of screaming civilians. The gunmen must have given up their attempts to block the exits when it became clear that Aiden had slipped the net. Lights flashed in the sky and sirens wailed as airborne ambulance units spiraled in towards the opera house, lights and sirens blaring. Sayeeda led them through an alley and across several broad streets. Things seemed surprisingly peaceful so close to the scene of a life and death shootout.

Suddenly all of the holo screens went black. A moment later they lit again all showing the image of a distinguished looking man in his later years. The man was dressed in a sober business suit and some sort of ceremonial sash of office. Behind him was Aiden’s brother *BLANK*, the latter dressed in a somber uniform of military cut. The words ‘emergency broadcast’ blinked below them in violet lettering.

“What is senator Gaius doing using the emergency address system?” Aiden asked, clearly puzzled “and why is Alexander with him?”

“Citizens,” the distinguished man began, his voice somber and controlled. Traffic on the street began to slow as eyes turned towards the unusually uniform broadcast.

“It is with a heavy heart I come before you. Our King *BLANK* has been murdered.” A shocked gasp went through the citizens, audible even over the wails of the wounded and the clangor of sirens.

“This heinous act appears at this stage to have been hatched at the highest orders of government. An hour ago the constabulary attempted to detain Prince Aiden for questioning. He, and his foreign associates killed several officers and fled. Any citizens with information regarding the whereabout of these individuals should contact the constabulary at once. Prince Blank and several other nobles have offered troops from their household guards as levies during this crisis.”

The screens blanked for another moment and then dissolved into a dozen different variations of ‘Breaking News!’

“Well shit.”
@POOHEAD189

Star Crossed: The Duke's Rebellion

Rene chuckled at the joke partly to conceal the fact that he had nearly jumped out of his skin when the AI greeted Solae. The palatial surroundings made him ill at ease. The De Quentain estates were of a more austere style but there were enough similarities to conjure a sense of dreamy unease which strained his nerves. Four years had been enough to draw a gauzy curtain over his previous life, to suddenly have that torn away, both by the manor and the presence of the beautiful and highborn Solae, was disorienting in a way that even the combat earlier hadn’t been.

He reached into one of the concealed storage cabniets and began to pull out cans and boxes of food. It was of good quality but largely instant. Rene wondered if the former owner had an autochef function or if he simply ate alone most of the time. One of the cabinets was a discrete refrigerator and he pulled several bottles of chilled fruit juice and set them down on the counter with a glassy clink.

From a purely military standpoint it made sense to eat. There was no telling how long they would be safe here or when supplies might be available again. There were other considerations than the military though. Solae had been through an ordeal and it was more than just physical. He safed the assault rifle and then reluctantly set it down atop a marble countertop.

“Let’s take a shower,” he declared and then immediately coughed in embarrassment at the unexpected implication. Solae was an attractive woman beyond any doubt but that was no excuse for discourtesy.

“I mean… not together…” he trailed off and then cleared his throat.

“You take a shower and I’ll keep watch,” he clarified a rueful grin spreading across his lips despite himself. You couldn’t be certain you wouldn’t be embarrassed unless you were dead. Given the likelihood that he would be dead in the next few hours or days maybe he should try to worry less.